...More than just a rockin' 80's song, it's an accurate description of what my life feels like this week. This week we are collecting pledges. (I feel like a public radio station.) We're not asking for money (yet), we're asking for amounts of how much money people could give if we did go back to Lima. We need $11,000 dollars for the next eleven months, and also some airfare and insurance amounts. It seems overwhelming. Completely and entirely overwhelming, especially in this economy!
And yet, we're throwing it out to our friends and family- "laying out a fleece" as our pastor put it. So far, we have more than $4500 pledged. In about five days. And I am realizing that what is truly overwhelming is the generosity of people who love the Lord, and believe in us as teachers. It is overwhelming. Completely and entirely overwhelming, especially in this economy! So, to all of you who are supporting us through prayer or financial gifts, THANK YOU for your love and faith. We value every cent that is being pledged to us and understand the value that every one of those cents has to the people gifting it to us. It is a testament to God- and to the faith of all of you who are acting out of love for God and the gospel.
Please check back for frequent updates...
We love you!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Trying to remember that God IS in control...
So, we've sent out 200 update letters. 200 pages of oh-so-brief summary of what the last nine months of 2008 were like. 200 pages of photographs giving a brief glimpse into our life in Peru. 200 postcards asking people to consider how they might be able to support us financially so that we can go back to Peru for our second year of teaching.
I hate asking people for money; especially NOW, with such turmoil in the economic lives of those around us. Elkhart County, where we live in Indiana, is apparently one of the hardest hit counties in the nation, with a current unemployment rate of 12%! The newspaper is filled with story after story of factory and plant closings, lay-offs, relocations, etc. And in all this, God wants us to start asking people for money???
It has been a very difficult adjustment for me (Emily) to accept the idea that human plans have once again fallen down in shambles, and that God's plan apparently is for me to ask people for their money. It's not hard to accept that human plans have been changed; I know that already. The difficulty is in the whole asking people for money thing. It seems SO presumptuous. Yes, I know that we're not really asking for "just us"; we are asking people to support a ministry that God has led us into... but here's the thing: i'm enjoying that ministry so much more than i've enjoyed almost anything else i've ever done as a career/job/employment it just seems somehow wrong to ask people to give me money to keep doing something i love so much. i can't get a job in the States teaching like i can in Peru- i'd need to go back to school. and some day i plan on doing that. Teaching in Lima has completely solidified that teaching is where i am supposed to be in life. And I love teaching hand in hand with God and the Holy Spirit.
I guess I've spent so long gearing myself up every day to go to jobs i don't really enjoy at all (or even despise) so that I can fulfill my financial obligations and needs for living, that having a daily employment that i enjoy so much is a bit miraculous for me. and I guess part of me says, how can i ask other people to pay for my happiness? I have to keep reminding myself: I'm not asking them to pay for my great job, i'm asking them to make it possible for me to serve God by doing exactly what He created me to love doing.
It's still humbling and more than a tad bit overwhelming to get notes from one unexpected source after another committing to give us hundreds of dollars. We were humbled last year at several large gifts (lap top computer, a $2000 and a $1000 gift) that made it possible for us to meet all the financial needs we had. I cannot thank people enough for their support: not just in material matters, but also in the prayers that we felt lefiting us up through the toughest moments. I cannot thank you, except to promise to go back and do my best as a teacher, a woman following God, a sister, and an ambassador of Christ from the United States.
Thank you. We love you all.
I hate asking people for money; especially NOW, with such turmoil in the economic lives of those around us. Elkhart County, where we live in Indiana, is apparently one of the hardest hit counties in the nation, with a current unemployment rate of 12%! The newspaper is filled with story after story of factory and plant closings, lay-offs, relocations, etc. And in all this, God wants us to start asking people for money???
It has been a very difficult adjustment for me (Emily) to accept the idea that human plans have once again fallen down in shambles, and that God's plan apparently is for me to ask people for their money. It's not hard to accept that human plans have been changed; I know that already. The difficulty is in the whole asking people for money thing. It seems SO presumptuous. Yes, I know that we're not really asking for "just us"; we are asking people to support a ministry that God has led us into... but here's the thing: i'm enjoying that ministry so much more than i've enjoyed almost anything else i've ever done as a career/job/employment it just seems somehow wrong to ask people to give me money to keep doing something i love so much. i can't get a job in the States teaching like i can in Peru- i'd need to go back to school. and some day i plan on doing that. Teaching in Lima has completely solidified that teaching is where i am supposed to be in life. And I love teaching hand in hand with God and the Holy Spirit.
I guess I've spent so long gearing myself up every day to go to jobs i don't really enjoy at all (or even despise) so that I can fulfill my financial obligations and needs for living, that having a daily employment that i enjoy so much is a bit miraculous for me. and I guess part of me says, how can i ask other people to pay for my happiness? I have to keep reminding myself: I'm not asking them to pay for my great job, i'm asking them to make it possible for me to serve God by doing exactly what He created me to love doing.
It's still humbling and more than a tad bit overwhelming to get notes from one unexpected source after another committing to give us hundreds of dollars. We were humbled last year at several large gifts (lap top computer, a $2000 and a $1000 gift) that made it possible for us to meet all the financial needs we had. I cannot thank people enough for their support: not just in material matters, but also in the prayers that we felt lefiting us up through the toughest moments. I cannot thank you, except to promise to go back and do my best as a teacher, a woman following God, a sister, and an ambassador of Christ from the United States.
Thank you. We love you all.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Peru comes to US
There's a double meaning to the title of this post: I was going to write Peru comes to Chicago, but the events didn't all happen in Chicago. Then I thought Michigan, but not all in michigan either. So I just decided to say that Peru comes to us (as in the plural pronoun) and realized (hee hee) is can capitalize that and give it double meaning! 
Last weekend, our roommate in Peru (and veteran missionary teacher that really really helped us survive) Katie Brink arrived at O'Hare with her fiance, Jose Manuel (who is Peruvian). Cindy and I had so much fun meeting them at the airport and shuttling them around city until her parents got into town SUnday afternoon. We stayed the night in the apartmnet of friends of ours from church who were out of town, went to our chicago church on sunday, took them down to the HAncock center adn then sent them UP to the observation deck as a wedding surprise gift. We ran out of time, but KAtie's parents arrived (driving on their way from Colorado) to pick them up nad take them to Grand Rapids, where the wedding was to be held.
So, yesterday, Cindy, me, Mom and Dad, and Heidi (our other roommate from PEru who came down to Indiana from Chicago to drive to the wedding with us) drove a nice 2 hours to the church wher
e KAtie's long-distance wedding came together in wonderful style! Our head principal, NAncy Miller, was also there, up from Ohio where she's spending the last of her furlough time. It was a little of our Peru life here in the States, and what a pleasure to share some of those people with our parents! And what an honor to be there to support Katie, and even MORE importantly, Jose Manuel, whose family will not celebrate with him until the wedding celebration in Peru on January 24. I was so thankful that NAncy and the rest of us could provide at least four familiar faces from his life in Peru.
I will try posting some pictures tomorrow- it's not letting me tonight!
Last weekend, our roommate in Peru (and veteran missionary teacher that really really helped us survive) Katie Brink arrived at O'Hare with her fiance, Jose Manuel (who is Peruvian). Cindy and I had so much fun meeting them at the airport and shuttling them around city until her parents got into town SUnday afternoon. We stayed the night in the apartmnet of friends of ours from church who were out of town, went to our chicago church on sunday, took them down to the HAncock center adn then sent them UP to the observation deck as a wedding surprise gift. We ran out of time, but KAtie's parents arrived (driving on their way from Colorado) to pick them up nad take them to Grand Rapids, where the wedding was to be held.
So, yesterday, Cindy, me, Mom and Dad, and Heidi (our other roommate from PEru who came down to Indiana from Chicago to drive to the wedding with us) drove a nice 2 hours to the church wher
e KAtie's long-distance wedding came together in wonderful style! Our head principal, NAncy Miller, was also there, up from Ohio where she's spending the last of her furlough time. It was a little of our Peru life here in the States, and what a pleasure to share some of those people with our parents! And what an honor to be there to support Katie, and even MORE importantly, Jose Manuel, whose family will not celebrate with him until the wedding celebration in Peru on January 24. I was so thankful that NAncy and the rest of us could provide at least four familiar faces from his life in Peru.I will try posting some pictures tomorrow- it's not letting me tonight!
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